Anxiety attacks have been proving to be increasingly common in recent years. They categorically represent one of the most stressing types of anxiety disorders in existence, and typically occur after being triggered by another. Not only impairing someone’s mental health, anxiety attacks can also have physical repercussions, often severe, as they are very much based in one’s physiology. Understanding the complete workings of this type of mental disorder is something that would take a lot of study, but this brief look should at least make you more aware of what this disorder is and give you some tips for managing anxiety attacks.
Anxiety attacks typically last less than twenty seconds, but have been known to produce symptoms that last upwards of two hours. The attacks always come on rather suddenly and, especially with those who don’t experience them regularly, are produced with no warning at all. The results are symptoms that are quite frightening to both the sufferer and, often, those around them.
Fear itself is a leading symptom of an anxiety attack. Sufferers become irrationally afraid of just about anything, or even everything. The feeling is inexplicable in the moment, and when the attack is done many can’t retrospectively understand what motivated those feelings. All the while, people also tend to experience common symptoms like shortness of breath, rapid heart rates and dizziness.
There are many other physical signs that are widely linked to anxiety attacks, and many more that a smaller minority of experts link to the condition. Of the more accepted symptoms, intense sweating and nausea are amongst the most common. Many also report the feeling of chest pain or general discomfort in that area. In all, the physical symptoms combine to create the illusion of a heart attack.
Those who suffer from anxiety attacks report feelings of utter helplessness. Along with the general fears these attacks can bring on, there is the overall fear that the physical symptoms are signs that they are in immediate danger of losing their lives. The series of thoughts that lead top such fear is what best illustrates how these attacks literally spiral out of control from a mild mental issue to a full out attack on one’s body and mind.
Ongoing research keeps providing new suggestions as to what can cause an anxiety attack, but what’s been learned hasn’t helped narrow down the field of potential sufferers. While genetics plays into it, with children of anxiety attack victims being more likely to suffer from their own, it’s far from being the only variable at play. Medications, withdrawal from meds, alcohol or other drugs, also increase the risk. There is also a high risk amongst those who suffer from other anxiety disorders such as agoraphobia.
Managing anxiety attacks doesn’t usually warrant emergency care, but instead requires long term treatments. Many take medications to help reduce their onset, and other treatments include behavioral therapy. A lot of first time anxiety attack victims do go to the hospital though, mainly because there is a genuine belief, by them and those around them, that they are suffering from a heart attack.
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